KUALA LUMPUR, NOV 26: A superb penalty corner flick by Ji Seong Hwan 45 seconds before the whistle gave defending champions South Korea a thrilling 5-4 victory against India and a place in the final of the Asia Cup Hockey Tournament here today.In Sunday's final, South Korea will take on Pakistan, who edged past Commonwealth Games silver medallist Malaysia 3-2 via Sohail Abbas' golden goal after the two sides were locked 2-2 at full time.Abbas flicked in Pakistan's eighth penalty corner to settle the issue in favour of the three times champions who were stunned by Malaysia in the 4th minute via Mirnawan Nawawi.Anis Mohammed struck twice in the 27th and 49th minute to give Pakistan a 2-1 lead before Kuhan Shanmuganathan levelled scores for Malaysia.Earlier, in the see-saw first semi-final at the Bukit Jalil Stadium, South Korea burst into a 2-0 lead by the fifth minute through Shin Seok Kya (3rd) and Hwang Jong Hyun (5th).Dilip Tirkey (9th min), Baljit Singh Dhillon (15th) and Deepak Sankhla(22nd) then fired home to put India briefly ahead 3-2 before Jeong Jong Ha (25th) scored to take the teams level 3-3 into the break.On resumption, Dhanraj Pillay (42nd) again gave the Indians the lead, only to see it wiped out by a late effort from Kim Jung Chul (60th) before the last-minute winner from Ji (69th) gave the Koreans victory.Playing in front of a 10,000-plus partisan crowd, the malaysian started on firm footing. They went ahead in the 4th minute when skipper nawawi latched onto a freehit, wove his way in and sent the ball crashing to the side of goalkeeper ahmed alam to the delight of the home crowd.The match was almost on equal footing but pakistan had the edge on the penalty corners. By the 23rd minute, they had earned four of them but with malaysia's goalkeeper roslan in full form, it was difficult going for abbas.
